George takes P4 and five points in the Sprint in Spielberg.

The Mercedes team worked diligently against the clock to ensure George’s W13 was fixed up and ready to run in FP2.

After missing the first 10 minutes of the final practice session, George was finally able to begin his session, donning the Soft Pirelli tyres as he hit the track for the first

time.

Delivering a 1.10.290 on his first run, the Brit placed into P6 before quickly improving into P3 in the timings.

Running all three tyre compounds in the session, George put in his best lap time of 1.09.240 to end the session in P7.

Due to a penalty for Sergio Perez, George lined up for the 24-lap Sprint in P4 on a set of Medium Pirelli tyres.

An issue for Fernando Alonso delayed the start, reducing the session by one lap.

As the lights went out, George made a clean getaway to safely get through Turn One as he attempted to hunt down the Ferrari duos ahead of him.

Unable to make up the ground to the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr. ahead, George maintained the gap between himself and Sergio Perez behind.

Taking the chequered flag, George ended the Sprint in P4 with five points and will line up for tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix from P4 on the grid.

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George Russell – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team Driver

First, thank you to everyone in the garage to get the car ready today. It was a huge team effort, so it was good to get points on the board. As for the performance, the gap was more than we were expecting. We were 13 seconds behind after 23 laps, so that's nearly half a second per lap. We need to work overnight to understand why we dropped off the pace. Small things can make a difference - the tyres weren't easy to manage, and different approaches to downforce levels will play a part tomorrow. But we are in no doubt that we've got work to do.

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